Edwidge Danticat

I hope to be a good role model for my daughters.

— Edwidge Danticat

People aren't really aware of what's happening in other places.

— Edwidge Danticat

And the fact that Haiti was occupied for 19 years by the United States, from 1915 to 1934.

— Edwidge Danticat

I'm just melancholy by nature, and a lot of that gets into my writing.

— Edwidge Danticat

Once you're involved in the work, it's really just you and the characters and the words.

— Edwidge Danticat

No one will love you more than you love your pain.

— Edwidge Danticat

The greatest gift anyone can give to a writer is time.

— Edwidge Danticat

Vodou is one of the religions practiced in Haiti, a rich religion for the people.

— Edwidge Danticat

Or even the state of Florida, where they are prepared to execute children. Umm, well, you hope that at least that there…

— Edwidge Danticat

I also know there are timeless waters, endless seas, and lots of people in this world whose names don't matter to anyone…

— Edwidge Danticat

“The soldiers can come and do with us what they want. That makes papa feel weak, she says. He gets angry when…

— Edwidge Danticat

“No one will ever love you more than you love your pain,” he had replied, his words ringing even louder in the…

— Edwidge Danticat

It's not easy to start over in a new place,' he said. 'Exile is not for everyone. Someone has to stay behind,…

— Edwidge Danticat

“Medicare rewards doctors far better for doing procedures than for assessing whether they should be done at all.”

— Edwidge Danticat

Love is like the rain. It comes in a drizzle sometimes. Then it starts pouring and if you're not careful it will…

— Edwidge Danticat

After writing fiction for so long, I like the discovery element of nonfiction, in the sense that when you find the right…

— Edwidge Danticat

Language is such a powerful thing. After the earthquake, I went to Haiti and people were talking about how [they] described this…

— Edwidge Danticat

On some levels, you can also have this feeling that we are being duped, somehow. And that the world is at play…

— Edwidge Danticat

Sometimes we mask ourselves to further reveal ourselves, and it's always been connected to me with being a writer: We tell lies…

— Edwidge Danticat

On some level, now, we are joining the larger world and realizing that we are connected with people in these very scary…

— Edwidge Danticat

When I meet people for the first time, I always put on my glasses because I feel like that's a little something…

— Edwidge Danticat

I'm not saying Cubans don't deserve asylum, but if it is a national security issue, there are people who are coming from…

— Edwidge Danticat

I can't wait for both my daughters to be old enough to read all my books. I loved it every time I…

— Edwidge Danticat

There is always a place where, if you listen closely in the night, you will hear a mother telling a story and…

— Edwidge Danticat

That experience of touching down in a totally foreign place is like having a blank canvas: You begin with nothing, but stroke…

— Edwidge Danticat

When you write, it’s like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse unruly strands and attempting to bring them unity. Your…

— Edwidge Danticat

“Jephthah called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim,…

— Edwidge Danticat

It seemed from the media that we were being told that all Haitians had AIDS. At the time, I had just come…

— Edwidge Danticat

The justification - the idea that we have a right to invade another country and determine another people's destiny - is frightening.…

— Edwidge Danticat

Salt is a powerful symbol in Haiti, as elsewhere. Salt of the earth, for example is an American phrase. In Haiti, myth…

— Edwidge Danticat

Often when you're an immigrant writing in English, people think it's primarily a commercial choice. But for many of us, it's a…

— Edwidge Danticat

The whole military structure in Haiti that existed until the early 1990s was put in place by the American occupation. At the…

— Edwidge Danticat

“I owe Oprah and that show a tremendous debt.”

— Edwidge Danticat

Toni Cade Bambara said: “Writing is the way I participate in the struggle.”

— Edwidge Danticat

“You thought that if you didn't tell the stories, the sky would fall on your head.”

— Edwidge Danticat

Here, though, there is nothing. Nothing at all. The sky seems empty even when I am looking at the moon and stars.

— Edwidge Danticat

There is a frustration too, that at moments when there's not a coup, when there are not people in the streets, that…

— Edwidge Danticat

When you are working on something, you have to believe that people will still be reading when you're done!

— Edwidge Danticat

Also, people are not often aware of the way the United States' policies influence what happens in places like Haiti or El…

— Edwidge Danticat

We've had fiction from the time of cave drawings. I think fiction, storytelling, and narrative in general will always exist in some…

— Edwidge Danticat